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Capacity rendered good service against some of the hostile tribes in Central Asia ; and he had married one of the most popular women of the Russian Court, a princess and heiress to great estates. This trip to Venice was con- sidered by the general as part of their honeymoon, and the Venetian ladies as well as the Venetian men were all agreed as to the bride's beauty; it was not Venetian; nor was it exactly Russian ; it combined the French manners with the reposeful face ^ Gretchen.
It was known that the general hatf^ ".u-h for
the lady's wealth as for her beauty and ner .. o , t - jsition at court. He was a universal admirer of the sex, and hard things had been said about his infidelities even during his honeymoon ; but it is a censorious world. There had come to Venice a certain distinguished stranger whose charms had already, it was said, given the Princess Radna cause for uneasiness ; and whose appearance at the Opera the night previously to the princess' reception had divided the attention of the audience with the stage, so exquisitely was she dressed, so radiant were her jewels, so lovely was her red-gold hair, so pathetically beautiful the expression of her deep violet eyes.
While Philip and his friends were dreaming about Desdemona under her hypothetical balcony, this lovely stranger was just leaving her gondola at the palace steps to be received by the princess, who was already jealous of her and had protested in vain against being compelled to receive her. In the old days of Venice, when every lover more or less carried his life in his hands among these splendid palaces, with their mysterious windows and alcoves looking out upon dim canals and gondolas that lay hid in shaded nooks, the princess would have had no difficulty in ridding herself of her rival had the reward been a favor to some lover of whom the general might
